As someone once said of Muhammad Ali in his pomp, he was a great respecter of newspaper deadlines. And so Novak Djokovic stepped up with agreeable urgency to knock poor Bobby Reynolds out of Wimbledon well before the watershed.

It wasn't a clean knockout. There were too many fluffed blows for that. But in a drizzled week when the words "upright" and "citizen" took on a more prosaic meaning, the Serb was as sure-footed as a mountain yak – as well he might out of the rain and under the roof of Centre Court.

He wrapped it up 7-6 (7-2), 6-3, 6-1 in under two hours. It doesn't get a lot more difficult for the Serb. Djokovic next plays either the Frenchman Jérémy Chardy, seeded 28, or the German Jan-Lennard Struff, who is ranked 115 in the world, whose match was held over along with three others on that side of the draw.

"It's a grand slam, and it's sport, so you can't win all the matches," Djokovic said. "Strange that so many top players lost in one or two days, but the lower players have nothing to lose when they come out on Centre Court, on the big stage, so I needed to be extra careful today.

"The conditions were a bit slower at the start under the roof but I was better in the second and third sets. It was important to be a set up.

"Mentally I felt more relaxed after that and could swing through the ball in the rest of the match. I think my game is there. I just need to capitalise on my opportunities. Today I was very poor on break points, but credit to my opponent."

Slip-ups abounded outside still, with Milos Raonic the most celebrated casualty, a loser in three relatively quick sets to the Dutchman Igor Sijsling out on Court 18, a show court, but not at the heart of the action.

The big Canadian probably imagines he deserves to be closer, but he did not show it, and his surprise loss (a little way less explosive than those of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal in the bottom half) opened up that side of the draw for the world No1.

Where his peers had fallen against opponents considered some way beneath them in ability, Djokovic entered the match wary of another pratfall, although he always gives the impression in the early stages of a slam that he is idling, saving his petrol for that big burn down the straight in the second week, when those around him are similarly equipped. Except, of course, the starting lineup on Monday will be sadly depleted.

Reynolds came to the match not exactly a lamb to the slaughter but, 156 places behind Djokovic in the rankings and with little prospect of narrowing the gap, the 30-year-old qualifier looked happy enough to be sharing the same stage with his illustrious opponent.

He hung in there, though. He saved two break points in the fifth game, but had few clues himself as to how to put pressure on Djokovic. It was not until the 10th game that the man from Cape Cod held to love, no mean feat against the best returner in tennis. Still, he took him to a tie-break, and there Djokovic went up a level, clinching the set with his sixth ace, always a definitive statement, a full point of intent.

And there were more. Djokovic is looking frighteningly strong in the shot, moving freely and has that relaxed air about him that makes opponents left in the draw wonder just what he has still to offer. Plenty. There might have been none of the net-charging heroics of the Stakhovsky-Federer thriller on the same court the night before, but there was chilling power and precision, the Serb's trademarks.

His serve did not click so ominously in the second set but he did what he had to, and started pulling away. But the American was going nowhere. This was his moment in the sun – or megawatt lighting. He had to save three break points to hold serve at the start of the second as the pressure mounted and the match took on the air of a sparring session.

The second set went more quickly than the first and the third, predictably, a little faster even. By the time Djokovic broke Reynolds to go 5-1 up, it seemed the patrons were staying on only out of politeness. Or maybe they did not want to get wet.

Serving for the match – with our deadline creeping towards us – Djokovic faltered a little for 30-all. Surely he would not let us down now. He did not. In the final rally of a one-sided contest, he moved Reynolds wide to the backhand, advanced to the net and tapped away the volley for one of easiest wins in a big tournament.

It wasn't perfect. He stuttered a little at the start, but was purring at the end. He can hardly have asked for a better start to his tournament.